Ms. Cohn’s Kindergarten Class

OH NO! I completely forgot to put flyers in the Take-Home Folders today regarding Sunday’s Back-To-School Picnic!!! In case you read this in time, here are the details:

Sunday, September 7, 2008
Robert’s Park - Bay Vista site
10570 Skyline Blvd

What to bring:
A-H salad - green/potato/pasta/fruit
I-O dessert - brownies/cookies/cupcakes
P-Z appetizers - crackers/cheese/chips/veggies/dips/fruit

You can bring your own beverage & main course, or you can purchase drinks, hotdogs, and burgers from the JM Dad’s Club.

No advanced reservations or tickets necessary. Cutlery, plates, and napkins will be provided. Parking is $5.00/vehicle.

Please come! It will be lots of fun!!!

The first day of school has finally arrived!  Welcome, and I would like to thank all of you who I had the opportunity to meet at the Orientation Tea – I can tell that we are going to have a fantastic year together.  For those of you who were unable to make it to the Tea, however, I would like to briefly introduce myself.  My name is Sylvi Cohn (Miss Cohn to your kindergarteners) and this will be my second year here at Joaquin Miller.  I am thrilled to be a part of this wonderful community, and I look forward to getting to know you and your children better over the course of this school year!  I will be communicating with you regularly via letters home and I will also be maintaining this website, where you can find my newsletters as well as a class calendar, volunteer opportunities, and a list of any supplies that we may need.   Once again, welcome and warm wishes for a fantastic school year together here in Room 4!

A couple of notes…

Homework: I will be giving out weekly homework assignments beginning next week.  These are intended to provide an opportunity for families to participate in the academic growth of their kindergartener while reinforcing key concepts and promoting good study skills.  Please set aside time to sit with your kindergartener while he/she completes each assignment.  Your job is to provide support and direction, while your kindergartener is responsible for completing the actual work him/herself.

What to Bring: I will be supplying all general school supplies for your child.  Please read through your Orientation packet carefully and return all paperwork to me, as well as one box of tissues and one container of baby wipes (if you have not done so already).
Also, please remember to pack your child a healthy snack (and lunch, if he/she is not purchasing school lunch), as well as a warm layer for those foggy mornings!  Students are allowed to keep easy-to-close, well sealed water bottles on their desks, as Room 4 does tend to get very warm at the beginning and end of the year.  Any other personal belongings that are brought to school (toys, writing implements, etc) must be kept in your kindergartener’s backpack for the entirety of the school day, including during recess and lunch.

Volunteering: Thanks so much to those parents who have already signed up to volunteer in the Computer Lab this year!  Helene Moore (the “computer lady”) and I will be communicating with you more in the next couple of weeks, as we will begin attending Computers in about a month.  Regular volunteer sign-up sheets will go out at Back-to-School Night, which will be held in about three weeks.   I also plan on keeping my website updated with any particular supply or volunteer needs that come up throughout the course of the school year.

Questions, Comments or Concerns?
Please slip me a note in your child’s Take-Home folder with any questions, comments, or concerns.  I will write a response within 24 hours or will schedule a time when we can discuss the issue further.

 As several students requested these recipes last Friday, I am putting them online in case anyone is interested in recreating them at home.  Happy eating!

Easy Radish Greens Soup

Heat 1/2 tbsp butter and 1 1/2 tsp olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add 1 medium potato and 1/2 medium onion (both coarsely chopped)  and cook for 5 minutes.  Add 2 cups vegetable broth, 1 bunch of radish greens, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Cook until the potatoes are soft and the greens are wilted - about 10 minutes.  Stir in the juice from 1/2 lemon.  Puree the mixture in a blender, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.

Radish & Apple Salad

Cut 1 bunch radishes, 2 small tart apples, and 1 medium cucumber (cut in half lengthwise, seeds removed) into julienne pieces or thin slices and mix together.  Stir together 1/3 c. sour cream, 1/3 c. mayonnaise, 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp dried dill weed, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Toss dressing with vegetables and serve.

Both recipes adapted from www.greenearthinstitute.org

With Spring Break behind us, we are now zooming through the final trimester in Room 4!  Last week marked the beginning of our new Language Arts unit on “Teamwork,” and in class we have been focusing on supporting this unit by taking special note of the ways in which our class makes up a team and the ways in which we need to function collectively in order to make that team successful.  We read the Decodable Book #10, Gus, today and will be following it up later in the week with Ten Men.  At this point our decodable books do involve whole sentences and sets of several similarly constructed decodable words, making them significantly more difficult for many kindergarteners.  Please review decodable books with your child as they come home, as this reinforcement will strengthen and improve your child’s literacy skills. In this unit we will also begin working on some of the more advanced phonemic blends, such as /ks/ (the letter x) and /kw/ (the letters qu).  This direct instruction in some sound combinations that are not readily apparent to young readers should aid students in their ability to “sound out words” when reading and writing.
In Math we are briefly covering coins, which I am using as a review of the numbers 1-30 and skip counting.  My main goal in this unit is to familiarize students with basic coin denominations and conventions (for example, that the two sides of a coin are called “heads” and “tails”) while reinforcing previously covered material.  So far we have been focusing on sorting, counting, and identifying pennies, nickels, and dimes by their physical characteristics.  For the rest of this week we will be focusing more on skip counting and on introducing quarters.  Next week we will be moving on to an equally brief review of time (analog and digital clocks, calendar facts, and sequencing), which we have incorporated into our Morning Meetings and other aspects of classroom culture throughout the year.
Ms. Treese (Room 1) and I will be team teaching our third and last science unit of the year, which will focus on comparing similar species of animals.  Room 4 kindergarteners will be spending the following three Friday afternoons in Ms. Treese’s room studying goldfish and guppies; later in the spring I will be introducing land and water snails.  We will be focusing on noticing the differences and similarities between these animals, and will also be thinking about how animals develop different characteristics in order to adapt to their different environments.  As an excellent introduction to this unit, the Junior Center of Arts and Science will be coming into our class again this Wednesday (tomorrow, 4/9) to do a workshop on amphibians which promises to be lots of fun (and very informative!).  Finally, I am proud to announce that our forest mural is complete and hanging on the bulletin board to the right of the interior door to our classroom!  I recommend that you come take a look if you get a chance; your kindergarteners all worked very hard to complete this extensive and student-directed project.  We have also created a book of our Kid Pix forest animal illustrations, and just today Room 4 got to glaze their forest animal clay sculptures!
Kindergarteners in Room 4 also got to harvest 24 beautiful (and very tasty!) radishes last Thursday, which were mixed into a radish and apple salad on Friday.  We then did a radish tasting to compare different types of radish preparations, including a radish greens soup, sautéed radishes, and of course our salad.  Our subsequent graph proved that we have a relatively adventurous and open-minded group of kindergarteners: 15 out of 20 students liked the radish greens soup, 10 students liked the sauté, and 11 liked the salad.  As several students excitedly pointed out today, there are also some young pea pods beginning to form on our pea plants, so I look forward to more successful harvesting in our future!  I am also preparing to plant one more final round of veggies for these last few months of the school year.

Oakland Museum Field Trip: THANK YOU!
The last of our three back-to-back field trips was a huge success, thanks in no small part to our wonderful parent chaperone/drivers!  Students got to look at a live tarantula and hold a snake, then went on a fascinating tour of the many and varied animal habitats that can be found in California.  The tour was well organized and very informative but quite long for kindergarteners (2 hours, with a 15 minute break in the middle) and all students deserve hearty congratulations for their stellar conduct throughout the entirety of the field trip.  We concluded our excursion with a pleasant and well-deserved picnic at the park by Lake Merritt.  Thank you, parents, for volunteering your time, energy, and vehicles to provide this opportunity for your students!  Your consistent cheery support is so vital and appreciated in our classroom!  Once again, thank you to Allison for providing the brilliantly bright blue Clif Kids shirts, which made all of my students so easy to spot throughout the duration of the trip.

As always, thank you so very much for your continued support.  Have a great week!

The second trimester is now officially over and Spring Break is only days away – time seems to be flying by in Room 4! This week in Language Arts we are finishing up our Open Court Reading unit on “Red, White, and Blue,” with a slew of new decodable books and the story The American Wei, which is about a young Chinese boy whose family is seeking citizenship in the United States. We are still working on blending sounds and are just beginning work on learning parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives), as well.
We are concluding our work on measurement in math this week as well, having covered length and volume already. We will be studying weight this week. Embedded in this unit have been concepts of ordering from greatest to smallest, comparing quantities and sizes, and estimating. In science, we are finishing up our focus on trees/plants and forest ecosystems. Our forest collage is now nearly complete (we are just missing the animals!) and have created beautiful illustrations of forest animals, both in colored pencil and in Kid Pix. This Monday (3/17) I plan adding a third medium, clay, to their study of these animals, as well. Our experience with clay from the MOChA field trip should serve us well as we continue to explore three dimensional art. Our garden is coming along wonderfully, and I can’t wait for us to finally be able to harvest some sample goodies after Spring Break!

MOChA Field Trip: THANK YOU!
Thank you so much to all of the wonderful parents that made our trip to MOChA two weeks ago such a success! Students studied patterning and texture as they made clay pinch pots, then finished off the pots with contrasting textured pieces of grey clay. We allowed the pots to air dry in our classroom, then glazed them with a combination of water and glue. They look great! An additional thank-you goes out to Allison, Matthew’s mom, who donated terrific (and terrifically brightly colored!) Clif Kids t-shirts for this and subsequent field trips! The shirts will stay in the classroom for the remainder of the school year in order to be reused on future field trips, but they will go home with your child at the end of the year. Thanks again, Allison!

Oakland Museum Field Trip: This Friday, 3/21!
Yes, yet another field trip is rapidly approaching! We will be going to the Oakland Museum this Friday for a program on Animal Habitats. This will be both a perfect wrap-up to our current science focus on forest ecosystems and an excellent transition into our new science unit on comparing and contrasting similar animals. We will be leaving school at around 8:40 so that we have time to snack and regroup before our 9:45 program begins. We will have a picnic lunch (and recess!) at Lake Merritt before returning to school no later than 1:30. If you have not completed and returned your child’s permission slip to me yet, please do so ASAP! Drivers (including back-up drivers) must also return permission slips, including copies of their drivers licenses and insurance forms (even if we already have copies from previous field trips). Please remember to send your child with a bag lunch and booster seat on Friday!

Report Cards:
If you have not done so already, please check your child’s folder for his/her report card, as all report cards went home on Friday. Once again, please sign and return the manila envelope in which you receive your report card. I will reuse the envelopes for the third report card period, as well.

Conferences:
As you have hopefully already heard, I will be holding parent-teacher conferences this week to discuss report cards. These conferences are totally optional. If you would like a conference time and have not already signed up on the sheets posted on my outside classroom door, please come see me and I will do my best to schedule you in!

As always, thank you so very much for your continued support. Have a great week!

As we slip into March, with our next field trip only two days away and Spring Break on the horizon, time seems to be moving in fast forward in Room 4! After last week’s bout with a particularly virulent flu bug (last Friday we were reduced to a stunning 12 students), most kindergarteners appear to have returned with excellent health and spirits this week.  Three cheers for Room 4 kindergarteners for fighting off the nastiest virus in recent memory!  This week in Language Arts we are continuing our new English Language Arts unit, “Red, White, and Blue.”  If your family has any visual information (pamphlets, photos, etc) on one or more National Parks/Monuments that your child would like to share with the class, we would love to include them in our studies!  Please label all items before sending them to school so that I can ensure that they are returned to their rightful owners.  We have been working on blending sounds (consonant-consonant blends and consonant-vowel blends) and are continuing to work on breaking words into syllables.  We will also be reading the Decodable Book “The Bib” and will be reviewing several beginning and ending consonant sounds.
We are now learning about measurement in math, beginning with length (longer/shorter and measuring).  We will be studying weight and volume next week. In science, we are continuing to focus on trees/plants and forest ecosystems. We are now adding trees to our forest collage and are finishing up illustrations of forest animals, both in colored pencil and in Kid Pix.  We planted plots of radishes, soybeans, and pea plants last week, and as of this afternoon I could already see what appeared to be the tiniest stems of our radish crop – how exciting!

MOChA Field Trip TOMORROW!
This Wednesday, March 5 we will be journeying to the Museum of Children’s Art (MOChA), where Room 4 kindergarteners will be designing and creating their own clay sculptures.  Many thanks to all for getting those permission slips back to me in a timely manner!  We will be leaving school at around 8:30 am and returning by 11:30 am.  Your child will not need a bag lunch or a snack, as we will be providing a healthy snack before the workshop and will be returning before lunchtime.  As we will probably be getting a little messy, however, please plan on sending your child to school in comfortable clothes to which you are not too attached.  Please also remember to drop off your child’s booster seat on that day.  As with the last field trip, please leave your child’s booster seat under your child’s name along the wall outside of Room 4.  I am looking forward to having a wonderful experience at the museum with your child!

Report Cards:
The end of the second report card period will be this Friday, March 7.  Report cards will be mailed the following Friday, March 14.  Once again, please sign and return the manila envelope in which you receive your report card.  I will reuse the envelopes for the third report card period, as well.

My Father’s Dragon:
We finished My Father’s Dragon, our first chapter book read-aloud, last week while many students were regrettably absent.  Many students have expressed interest in finishing the story at home with their parents.  I am lending out my copy to students one at a time; however, if you wish to buy or borrow the book on your own you will probably be able to track down a copy relatively easily.  My Father’s Dragon was written by Ruth Stiles Gannett and was illustrated by her mother, Ruth Chrisman Gannett.

As always, thank you so very much for your continued support.  Have a great week!

As of today, there are only 70 days left in this school year.  Can you believe it has flown by so fast?! This week in Language Arts we are beginning our new English Language Arts unit, “Red, White, and Blue,” in which we will be discussing issues of national identity, patriotism, and the United States.  In keeping with this theme, we will be learning about the country’s National Park system.  This will also tie into the tail end of our trees/forest unit.  We have been working on blending sounds (consonant-consonant blends and consonant-vowel blends) and are continuing to work on breaking words into syllables.  We will also be reading the Decodable Book “The Nap” and will be reviewing several beginning and ending consonant sounds.  This week will also hopefully conclude our journey onto Wild Island with Elmer Elevator in My Father’s Dragon.
We are concluding our formal study of the numbers 10-30 and will be transitioning into studies of money sense (understanding coins) and using comparison terms, such as taller/shorter or heavier/lighter, as we learn about measurement. In science, we are continuing to focus on trees/plants and forest ecosystems. We had a wonderful “hands-on” experience last Friday on our field trip to Roberts Regional Park for our Slug Search!  Students came back today and were able to create an extensive Concept Web with all of the information they had learned about slugs.  Students are now using Process Writing to create nonfictional pieces on slugs.  We completed the graphic organizer and first drafts today; tomorrow we will work on editing and proofreading our writing.  We have just about completed the background of our forest collage and will soon be adding trees and forest critters.  Students have also made some beautiful drawings of a variety of forest animals, which will hopefully be on display soon.

Slug Search:
Thank you to all of the parent drivers who came and played in the forest with us, despite the chilly and somewhat inclement weather. Your enthusiasm made this trip possible! Thank you also to our fantastic naturalist/tour guide Gail, who proved to be a great teacher and a true wealth of forest knowledge!  The kids seemed to have had a wonderful time and have a new-found appreciation for slugs of all sizes and shapes!

Field Trip Next Wednesday, 3/5: Clay Sculpture at MOChA!
With the Slug Search behind us, we are immediately gearing up for another field trip in slightly over a week to the Museum of Children’s Art, where Room 4 kindergarteners will be designing and creating their own clay sculptures!  Please complete and return the permission slip (in your child’s folder today) as soon as possible so that we have adequate time to process the forms and prepare for the event!  We will be leaving school at around 8:30 am and returning before lunch, so a bag lunch will not be necessary.  As we will probably be getting a little messy, however, please plan on sending your child to school in comfortable clothes to which you are not too attached.  Please also remember to drop off your child’s booster seat on that day.  I am looking forward to having a wonderful experience at the museum with your child!

Morning Drop-Off Procedures:
Please remember that school starts promptly at 8 am – getting students into the classroom on time means that class can begin in a timely manner!  Unless it is raining all students should be dropped off at the outside door to the classroom (the one attached to the playground). Thank you for keeping our morning routine consistent and efficient!

Report Cards:
The end of the second report card period will be next Friday, March 7.  More information will follow in next week’s newsletter.

As always, thank you so very much for your continued support.  Have a great week!

    Now that the 100th Day/Valentine’s celebrations are finally behind us, we are back to work in Room 4! This week in Language Arts we will be concluding our “Sticking to It” unit, although the themes that we have discussed will carry over into our next unit, “Red, White, and Blue.”  We have been working on blending sounds (consonant-consonant blends and consonant-vowel blends) and are continuing to work on breaking words into syllables.  We will also be reading two more Decodable Books, “Sit, Lil” and “Sam and Matt.”  We are also continuing to read My Father’s Dragon in the afternoons.
We will be concluding our formal study of the numbers 10-30 this week and will be continuing next week with a combination of money sense (understanding coins) and using comparison terms, such as taller/shorter or heavier/lighter. In science, we are continuing to focus on trees/plants, with the specific aim of learning about forest ecosystems.  As I mentioned earlier, we are tying the science curriculum in with our Language Arts by reading books about forests and “sticking to” a collage on butcher paper that will represent all of the aspects necessary for a functional forest ecosystem.  We have made an extensive list of animals that live in the forest and are now recreating some of these animals on Kid Pix in the computer lab.

Valentine’s Day:
Thank you to everyone who made our Valentine’s party such a huge success!  I heard many choruses of “This is the best day EVER!”  I hope that you enjoyed looking through your child’s valentines from classmates with him/her that night!

Field Trip Friday: Slug Search!
This Friday we will be taking a field trip to Roberts Regional Park to participate in a park ranger-guided slug search!  This will tie in nicely with our science curriculum and will provide an excellent opportunity for students to get up close with a local forest habitat!  We will be leaving on Friday at about 10 am and will be returning to school by around 1:30.  Your child must come to school with a bag lunch and his/her booster seat!  We will be outside and your child will probably get very dirty, so please send them in durable, washable clothes, close-toed shoes, and a warm layer, and please provide rain gear in case we hit some inclement weather.

Homework:
Please double check that your child has done all of his/her math packets completely and correctly, according to the directions at the bottoms of the pages.  If you have any questions regarding homework directions, please don’t hesitate to ask!  Also, at this point in the year I do expect all students to be writing in their own journals (with a parent’s supervision and aid as needed).  They are all writing for me every day in class, so I know they can!

Morning Drop-Off Procedures:
Please remember that school starts promptly at 8 am – getting students into the classroom on time means that class can begin in a timely manner!  Kindergarteners really appreciate the routine built into our mornings, and I would like them to be around to share that time with their classmates.  As an additional reminder, unless it is raining all students should be dropped off at the outside door to the classroom (the one attached to the playground).  Teachers really value the solitude of the halls in the morning as a time to collaborate and to plan for the day.  The noise associated with students and family members in the halls (particularly a full half-hour before the school day begins for grades 1-5) can be distracting and disruptive.

Have a great week!

Dear Parents,

This is an exciting time of the year in Room 4 – we have our hundredth day of school this Friday, and next Thursday is Valentine’s Day! Kyle’s mom, Doris, also kindly came into the class this afternoon to teach us a little bit about Chinese New Year, and Kyle taught us a new song in Chinese! This week in Language Arts we will be continuing with our theme of “Sticking to It,” in which we are reading stories about characters who accomplish their goals through perseverance and hard work. We are thinking about how this theme can affect our classroom specifically, and as a result are planning on putting some hard work into a collage-style wall mural depicting a forest ecosystem. We will also be reading our first Decodable Book, entitled “Sam Sat,” which students will be able to read independently without the aid of graphics standing in for words. We are slowly compiling lists of words by “word family” and posting them around the room to be used as a tool for students during their daily journal writing. I am also using the data from our midyear Open Court Reading assessment (on which Room 4 did very well!) to shift our focus to the distinction between syllables (clapped) to “sounding out words” (demonstrated on one arm – your student can show you how!). We are also starting to add longer chapter books to our read-aloud sessions (we just finished a 3-day journey into the woods with “How the Forest Grew” by William Jaspersohn), and I have found that students’ ability to maintain interest and focus on one book over several days is fantastic! No worries; shorter picture books and Big Books are not being eliminated by any means; we are simply starting to weave longer selections into the curriculum as students’ attention spans increase.
In Math we are now slowly working our way through the numbers larger than 10. We have been talking a lot about “hundreds charts” in preparation for the hundredth day of school, and students have now made their own hundreds charts and are learning how to skip-count by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. Much of this is just practice at becoming fluent (especially with 2’s) – they can generally “work it out” with a hundreds chart in front of them, but reciting by memory is much tougher. If you have a spare second (in the car, at the dinner table, before bed, etc) to ask your student to run through some skip counting with you, the extra practice will only help! We are also focusing on numeral order in 2-digit numbers, as many students are still working to differentiate between the digit in the 10’s and one’s places.
In science, we are continuing to focus on trees/plants, with the specific aim of learning about forest ecosystems. As I mentioned earlier, we are tying the science curriculum in with our Language Arts by reading books about forests and “sticking to” a collage on butcher paper that will represent all of the aspects necessary for a functional forest ecosystem. We have made an extensive list of animals that live in the forest, with the hopes of recreating at least some of these animals on Kid Pix in the computer lab net week. Another thanks goes out to Kyle’s mom, Doris, for bringing in a wonderful selection of leaves and branches for us to study – we had a lot of fun looking specifically at the different types of veins we could see in the leaves of different types of trees! Thanks also to Kayla’s mom, Ruthie, for bringing in some great pine bark for us to study!
The pea and soybean seeds in the greenhouse section of our planter box have also begun to sprout, and as soon as I feel it’s relatively safe to assume that there won’t be any sub-freezing temperatures, I’m planning on planting our radishes, as well! We are still focusing on identifying feelings of anger in our Second Step lessons and are combining this focus with work on finding productive, positive ways to deal with being hurt.

Hundredth Day of School:
As I mentioned earlier, the hundredth day of school will be this Friday! On top of in-class activities, I have asked that each student bring in a display of 100 items for them to demonstrate counting to the class. Projects are due this Thursday at the very latest, and we will begin sharing the projects that have already been turned in (hooray to those students for getting their work done early!) starting tomorrow.

Homework:
Please double check that your child has done all of his/her math packets correctly, according to the directions at the bottoms of the pages. If you have any questions regarding homework directions, please don’t hesitate to ask! Also, at this point in the year I do expect all students to be writing in their own journals (with a parent’s supervision and aid as needed). They are all writing for me every day in class, so I know they can!

Morning Drop-Off Procedures:
Please remember that school starts promptly at 8 am – getting students into the classroom on time means that class can begin in a timely manner! Kindergarteners really appreciate the routine built into our mornings, and I would like them to be around to share that time with their classmates. As an additional reminder, unless it is raining all students should be dropped off at the outside door to the classroom (the one attached to the playground). Teachers really value the solitude of the halls in the morning as a time to collaborate and to plan for the day. The noise associated with students and family members in the halls (particularly a full half-hour before the school day begins for grades 1-5) can be distracting and disruptive.

Library:
The Book Fair is being held in the Library this Tuesday-Thursday. This is an exciting opportunity for you to enhance your own personal libraries while providing important funds for your favorite neighborhood elementary school! The class will be visiting the Book Fair this Thursday during our normal library time (9:15-10:00). This week we will not be returning old library books or checking out new ones, so you get to enjoy last Thursday’s selection for another week! Instead, feel free to send your child with cash or a Book Fair Order Form and personal check so they can buy some great books to take home!

MS Word/Website confusion:
It appears that a bunch of strange symbols and non-English letters are taking the place of various punctuation marks in my posts here. I apologize for the resulting difficulty in reading these posts. I will talk to people who are more techno-savvy than myself and see if I can resolve the problem.

As always, thank you so very much for your continued support. Have a great week!

Oops - apparently I saved this as a draft instead of publishing it! Apparently I’m still working out the glitches in the system here. My apologies! Enjoy!

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Joaquin Miller after what I hope was a restful and joyful holiday season!  This week in Language Arts we will be finishing up our unit on “The Wind.”  We read a new predecodable book today entitled “We Can Have A Team,” in which students were introduced to the sight words “like” and “too.”  We have been studying initial and final “s” and “t” sounds and have also been focusing on the long and short vowel sounds, with a particular emphasis on the long “a” sound.  Following the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday we will begin our new English Language Arts unit, “Stick To It.”  The kindergarteners are still writing daily journal entries, and I am thrilled by their ongoing transformation into readers and writers!  Their enthusiasm and progress is truly remarkable.  In math, we have finally moved past the numbers 1-10 (hooray!) and are now exploring solid geometry - spheres, cones, cubes, and cylinders.  We have been focusing on the properties of these objects and have spent time exploring the various two-dimensional objects that cover their surfaces.  Next week we will be formally reviewing plane shapes (two-dimensional geometry) before moving on to the numbers 10-20 at the end of the month.
We have also begun our new FOSS Science unit, Trees.  Last week we took a “tree walk” around the Joaquin Miller grounds, observing the different types of trees we encountered and taking notes on their varying characteristics.  Since then we have spent time drawing trees, comparing the branches of different species (pine and eucalyptus) and recording our findings on a Venn diagram, and discussing the different ways that people and animals use trees.  Now that we have begun to plant our garden (we have soybean and pea seeds in both the greenhouse and “open air” portions of our planter box), I am hoping to integrate our work in the garden and our tree unit into a broader “plants” unit. Our Second Step lesson this week focuses on “Dealing With Not Getting What You Want” and reinforces strategies for calming down and finding alternatives.

Holiday Gift:
I honestly cannot put into words how absolutely blown away Nicole and I were by your extremely kind and generous holiday gifts!  We were absolutely thrilled to receive the baskets of school supplies, and I was so touched by all of my students’ sweet compiled thoughts, but nobody prepared us for what lay inside of those little white envelopes!  I really don’t know how to thank all of you enough.  Your support, kindness, and generosity continue to leave me completely stunned.  I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with families such as you!  Once again, thank you so very much, and I assure you that the gift cards (and the school supplies!) will be put to good use!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorical Fest:
Joaquin Miller will continue it tradition of celebrating the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. with its annual oratorical festival on Friday, January 25.  I am hoping to put together a whole-class recitation for the event; however, individuals are also encouraged to present a speech of their own if they wish.  Some students have expressed interest in this (and I think it would be great if they did!), so I am attaching the formal information and sign-up sheet.  Students must fill out the form and agree to attend three lunchtime rehearsals in order to participate.

Garden:
We have soybeans and pea seeds planted in the greenhouse area of our new planter box, and three hardy little pea seeds managed to survive the torrential downpours and sprout up over Winter Break in the outdoor portion of the box!  Radishes are soon to follow.  The kids are thrilled and come in from recess with constant updates on our seedlings’ progress.  Thanks once again to everyone who made this possible!  We love our planter box! ☺

Welcome back!  It’s so lovely to see everyone again!  Have a great week!